In many current application programs such as used in teller banking applications, the application program is started in the morning and continues to run all day. As operators change places during the day, different tellers can sign off and on to the workstation application and can communicate with other workstation computers using the operators identification. An example is when a teller using such an application calls over a supervisor to override a limit. The supervisor approves the override request on the teller workstation by entering the supervisors ID and password to perform the override functions. In extended applications the supervisor can perform the override functions by communicating them in a message from another computer workstation onto which the supervisor is signed on.
The communication network allowing such remote supervisor override must maintain operator ID integrity as operators including supervising operators sign on and off of various computer workstations in the network. Current communication networks use operator ID and password to accomplish such integrity, and to address messages between workstations, allowing several operators to use a computer application program simultaneously or in seriatim without re-configuring the network. An example of such a computer workstation application program is the IBM SAA Consumer Transaction program product.
It is desired to use a transmission control program/internet protocol (TCP/IP) network to connect computers over local area networks as well as between such networks and host computers, the computers also being required to run the computer application program identified above,or equivalent programs, serving a number of operators without compromising operator identification integrity. TCP/IP networks do not use operator identification however, but instead use an IP address or a host name, neither of which can be changed without stopping, re-configuring, and restarting TCP/IP in the workstations as operators change workstations. Each change also requires that the workstation computer application program also be stopped and restarted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,949 to R. M. Morten et al. describes linking SNA host computers together over a packet switched network such as the Defense Data Network (DDN). A problem continues to exist with this approach to the current objective in that as operators sign on and off of a host computer, other operators and their host computers do not have the proper information to place in the internetting protocol (IP) header so that the message goes to proper host.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,536 describes a way, for a person, maintaining a database shown in table 1, to assign an internetting protocol (IP) address to each remote user that accesses a local computer network. A remote access server computer ensures that each "authorized" user receives the same unique IP address each time that the user makes a remote access connection, even though the connection may be made from different computers at different locations. This allows employees who travel or who work at home to consistently access the company computer network. If the accessing computer is already operating under a different IP address TCP/IP must be stopped and restarted in that computer. Also it can only serve one operator at a time since a workstation computer can not have more than one IP address at a time. Another limitation of this prior art patent is that a person must manually update the database and assign an IP address to each operator.